


The Girl Who Insisted

by crimson_violet



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adult Rory Williams, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aromantic Asexual Doctor (Doctor Who), Aromantic Character, Asexual Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Eleventh Doctor Era, Friendship, Gen, No Romance, POV Eleventh Doctor, Young Amelia Pond, non-humanoid aliens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:47:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27283648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimson_violet/pseuds/crimson_violet
Summary: The Doctor met seven-year-old Amelia Pond, promised to be back in five minutes, and then vanished for twelve years without a trace. And Amelia vanished for twelve years too, because she'd insisted on coming with him.
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor & Amy Pond & Rory Williams
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. Ahead of Time and Behind Schedule

The Doctor wasn't quite sure how little Amelia Pond had convinced him to bring her into his capsized TARDIS, while the cloister bell sounded no less, but convince him she had. Perhaps it was the way she had clung so tightly to his sleeve, or the way her eyes had darted back to the crack in her wall as she insisted to him she didn't want to be alone. At any rate, she was here _now_ , and there didn't seem to be any getting rid of her. Not that he _could_ if he wanted to - it seemed there was something dangerous living in her house (which, by the way, was apparently choc full of perception filters). Almost as soon as he'd realized that, they'd heard something move behind them, Amelia had screamed, and the Doctor had scooped her up in his arms and ran out of there as fast as his (newly regenerated and still slightly wobbly) legs could carry him. He was still getting used to the way this body handled. There seemed to be a lot of flailing involved. A few moments after they were clear of the house, he realized something else was off. By the smell of the air and the color of the grass and the way the sunlight hit the peeling paint of the house - they were late. About twelve years too late. She takes that news in stride so well that he thinks she may be a natural born time traveller.

Landing back in Leadworth twelve years behind schedule after their short hop to the moon and back had certainly thrown off some of his plans, but it honestly wasn't as disruptive as he'd thought it would be. Well, the screaming was certainly disruptive, but not nearly as disruptive as the booming alien voice of the Atraxi demanding the whereabouts of "Prisoner Zero" and threatening to destroy the entire Earth. That _really_ got everyone's attention. It seemed like no one even remembered that there had once been a little girl living in that strangely empty house, who had vanished twelve years ago and returned looking not a day older. Well. _Almost_ no one.

He'd managed to track the thing living in her house, presumably Prisoner Zero, to the local hospital. Amelia was is tow, naturally, because if the entire Earth was in danger she should be just as safe beside him as anywhere else. That, and she still _refused_ to let go of his sleeve, and she had a stunningly strong grip for someone so small. At the hospital though. A nurse saw her, and froze. The nurse saw her, recognized her, and dropped his clipboard in shock.

" _Amelia?_ "

Ah. So someone did remember. That was good. Probably.

Amelia's sharp little eyes widened in surprise and recognition as they darted from the man's name badge to his face and back again.

" _Rory?_ " she asked, just as incredulous as he'd sounded.

"I-- you-- is it really you, Amelia? What _happened_ to you?" Rory looked at her like he was afraid she might disappear again if he looked away.

"I should be asking you that!" She grinned up at him. "When did you get so _old_?"

Rory opened his mouth and started to ask another question, while eyeing the Doctor suspiciously, but was interrupted by Amelia seizing both of their hands.

"Rory, this is the Doctor! He landed in my yard when I was seven and we went to the moon and back, but we came back a little late. You see?" Amelia beamed at both of them.

Rory looked like he very much wanted to say something, but couldn't quite figure out what. The Doctor decided that was as good a moment as any to take back the lead here.

He straightened the remains of his old tie, reminded himself to find some new clothes _soon_ , and said, "Well then! Wonderful to be reunited and all that but - six minutes left to save the world. Let's get to work! Rory, would you be so kind as to give me access to that computer?" 

Rory looked like he desperately wanted to argue, but. Well. Six minutes to save the world and all that. He swiped his badge on the scanner at the computer, logging in.

The Doctor typed out a program in record time that will send a powerful signal to the Atraxi that Prisoner Zero is here, using the strength of all the computers on the hospital's network. On finishing, he stretched his arms, congratulated himself on remembering how to do things like this, and then started the program running. Now it's just a matter of waiting. And avoiding Prisoner Zero, who made an attempt at stopping the signal by smashing the computer. Good thing it was running on _all_ the hospital's computers. They all ran outside together, the Doctor stopping briefly to pilfer some clothes from a locker on the way. Hey. He's actually found some of his favorite clothing this way. And this time it looked like he had found quite the stash of ties. Surely he would take a shine to one of them.

The Doctor fumbled around a bit with the bow tie before figuring out how to get it on properly. He checked with Amelia if it looked good ("I liked your old clothes better!") and Rory ("Let's worry about the whole aliens destroying the Earth thing first okay?"). Well. The Doctor thought it looked good, and that was pretty much the only thing he ever took into account when making fashion choices. It's important to look good and _feel_ like it when negotiating for the safety of entire planets after all.

Seconds later, the Atraxi arrived to collect their prisoner. Or rather, what looked like a giant eyeball arrived. Whether that was their ship or their body or something else entirely, the Doctor wasn't sure, and he didn't have time to ask. He would have _loved_ to though. Maybe next time, he'd have to search them out - that'll just eat away at him otherwise. Instead of asking personal questions, the Doctor gave them a speech that he made up on the spot (he felt like he may actually be quite good at that), and warned them away. The Earth was no threat, not here and not now. But it most certainly was protected.

Amelia turned to the Doctor, eyes shining in excitement.

"So, time travel. I want to see the future. And aliens."

"Well, technically you're already in the future and seeing aliens, but there are plenty more futures and aliens out there. I think you need a nap first, though." The Doctor held out a hand to Amelia and she seized it. "Come along, Pond."

"Hang on just a minute, now," Rory's exasperated voice came from behind them. "You can't just take her away again-- I mean, she's still only _seven_ , and-- OW!"

Amelia had bitten him on the hand.

"I can do whatever I want! You can't stop me, I'm _going_ to go with the Doctor."

"But--" Rory started to argue. Amelia made a motion as if to bite him again, and he fell silent. The Doctor considered if perhaps Rory has something of a point. Seven was rather young for a human, wasn't it? Then again, they were all terribly young. And she could handle herself. Besides, she _really_ didn't look like she was going to take no for an answer. He could keep her safe enough - he'd managed when Susan was younger hadn't he? Well. Not younger in years certainly. But younger in the relative scheme of things.

Rory looked like he was thinking quite hard as well.

"Right. _Right_." Rory said. A bit exasperated, but a touch of excitement as well. "Well then you're going to take me with you too. You're not going to make my best friend disappear on me again. And hopefully I can keep you out of too much trouble."

"The more the merrier! I think my TARDIS should be done repairing itself by now - let's go see what she's done with the place!" The Doctor strode off, new friends in tow.


	2. The Moon and Beyond

Rory had questions, because of course he did. After sleepy Amelia was safely tucked away in the TARDIS, he started asking them. After getting all the normal questions out of the way (the usual "How can this much space fit inside such a small box?" and "Who _are_ you anyway?", which the Doctor did definitely, _definitely_ know the answers to by the way… just not in English) Rory moved onto some questions that the Doctor had a little less practice answering.

"Why can't you take Amelia back to the time she's supposed to be in?"

Why couldn't he, indeed. There was something there. Some stray thought that went further than just the fact that Amelia would refuse to go. The inherent wrongness of the house she lived in. The emptiness. And the crack on her bedroom wall, a crack deeper than just the wall, deeper than the whole house or even the whole Earth. A crack through time and space. And _that_ wasn't something he could very well just leave her alone with, was it? To Rory though, sweet Rory, he simply said, "She won't go back. And she can't now, anyway. You remember her being gone, so that's how it must have happened."

Rory seemed to accept this, but he still looked concerned.

"Doctor…" he said, quiet and determined, "when I was seven, I lost my best friend. Amelia disappeared, and her aunt did too. I thought maybe they moved away, but everyone else seemed to forget so fast that they'd ever existed. I am not going to let her disappear again."

Fair enough. Amelia's aunt though, there was something there too. The Doctor just wasn't quite sure what. Not yet at least. These things tend to have a way of coming together when they mean to.

\---

In the morning, Amilia woke up long before Rory, and came into the console room to find the doctor sitting under it, beneath the glass floor, surrounded by all the soft lights and whirring noises, half-hidden by the hanging cables. 

"Aliens." she says. " _Future_ aliens. You said we could go."

"If future aliens are what you want, then future aliens we shall see!" The Doctor bounded to his feet and back up to the console excitedly. "But first! But first, Miss Amelia. Shall we show Rory the moon?"

Earth's moon was a common request for a first stop among humans, he'd found. It was safe (in this time period at least), brilliantly beautiful, and they all seemed to feel some kind of draw to it. A peaceful and uneventful first stop before travelling deeper into the unknown. And besides, Amelia really hadn't had a chance to see it _properly_ yet. She'd been there with him for an hour or so, while the TARDIS re-aligned some of its parts, but the cloister bell had been ringing almost the whole time, and the TARDIS had let off some truly obnoxious clouds of steam. That was definitely no way to enjoy the moon.

The Doctor fiddled with the controls at the console for a moment, and the TARDIS whirred into life. Now Amelia could see that properly too, and her eyes grew wide enough for the Doctor to see quite a few of the lights and dials in the console room reflected back at him in them. The TARDIS whirred at them softly, and gently materialized on the surface of the moon, kicking up a small cloud of moon dust as air is displaced.

The landing, gentle as it was, would seem to have woken Rory, who came shuffling out wearing his pajamas just as the Doctor pushed the TARDIS door open to reveal the lunar surface. Couldn't have asked for better timing, really. Rory gaped at the moon.

"Is that-- _Is that--_ ?" Rory seemed at a loss for words. Amelia, however, did not.

"It _is_ ! Come _on_ Rory!" She grabbed one of Rory's hands and started trying to drag him out through the door.

Rory balked. "But-- That's-- Can we-- We can't _breathe_ out there, Amelia!"

"We can, actually!" The Doctor said. "The TARDIS tries to keep conditions habitable for a few yards out from her exterior. Try to stay close though."

Apparently, that made Rory pause long enough for Amelia to succeed at pulling him through the door. The surface of the moon, silent and beautiful, stretched out in front of them. Despite the air, Rory looked like he was having some trouble breathing anyway.

" _Oh_ ," Rory whispered, and squeezed Amelia's hand tightly. She smiled up at him. 

The Doctor watched both of them from the doorway as they looked, entranced, at the bright little ball of green and blue that was their planet. After a long while of looking, and more time spent bouncing around in the low gravity at Amelia's insistence, they were ready to go. Rory stole a last look at the Earth over his shoulder as he stepped back into the TARDIS. Amelia did not. It was time for _future aliens_ , after all.

The Doctor closed the TARDIS door behind him. He had the perfect destination in mind - it was safe, it was suitable for beings of all ages, it was very futuristic and there would be aliens galore there, and nothing, absolutely _nothing_ could happen to unduly endanger Amelia there. Well. Probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, an adventure begins in earnest.


	3. Aboard the Clariel

The _Clariel_ was a first-rate leisure cruise spaceship from the year 3492 (but Earth's calendar - but the _Clariel_ had very little to do with Earth). She was designed specifically to cater to humanoid life forms, but popular enough that plenty of non-humanoids on holiday could be found on her decks as well. She was family friendly, filled to the brim with high-tech activities, and most importantly, was where the TARDIS was landing.

The Doctor abandoned his attempt at listing out exactly _how_ many different alien species were going to be sharing the ship with them (287.45 by his count, but the 0.45 was both debatable and difficult to explain to humans), and whirled around to fling open the TARDIS door as soon as they landed. Spinning around felt very nice indeed, he decided - the air resistance against his fingertips and the way the back of his coat lifted briefly away from his body. Flinging open the door felt even nicer. Beyond the door, however--

"We're in a supply cupboard." Rory said.

"Ah." So they were. The Doctor strode forward to the door of the supply cupboard, and flung _that_ open. "Welcome to the _Clariel_."

In a word, the _Clariel_ was magnificent. In several more words, she was large enough to very comfortably house 20,000 passengers and 9,000 crew members in addition to all of the spaces for amenities and recreation, and she was sparklingly smooth and shining white, with archways soaring off into the distance under the high ceilings, and huge windows so tall that you'd have to crane your neck to even hope to see the top of them revealing the only blackness of space and the glitter of stars. The _Clariel_ was currently docked at her home planet, Vantus IV, and passengers were beginning to filter on board. Guests were checking in at the many front desks, having their luggage carried off, exchanging their tickets for their room keys… tickets. That was something they probably needed, wasn't it. Well, the Doctor had never bought a ticket in all his lives, and he wasn't about to start now. Not that he had any money on him at the moment anyway. There's no use in being a cosmic vagabond if you're going to go around with _money_ flowing out of your pockets.

"Come along, Pond and Williams! Stay within sight." The Doctor said briskly, and began to stride off in the direction of the leftmost check-in desk. His hand found the familiar weight of his psychic paper in his breast pocket, and drew it out. Amelia clutched tight to his sleeve with one hand (the gripping strength of those little fingers could _not_ be overstated), and Rory had a firm hold of her other hand, and the three of them waded through the sea of excited alien tourists. There really was a marvellous array of different species represented here - from almost human-looking Faccecci (human-passing except for the points to their ears and the subtle blue flush to their skin), to more truly alien looking folks. Amelia seemed particularly interested in a group of candyfloss-like floating puffs in different pastel colors, all clustered together. The Doctor wasn't even quite sure what those _were_.

"We'd like accommodations here please!" He announced to the clerk at the desk, slapping the psychic paper down on their desk paper-side-up.

The Doctor beamed down at the little Vantian clerk at the desk, as they took hold of the paper in one of their claws and fluffed up their feathered crest in surprise.

"Ah, I see! Very well sir. Please follow me, your party will have access to one of the presidential suites." The Vantian trilled at them. They slid the paper back over to the Doctor, who tucked it back into his pocket. He caught a glimpse of what it had said before the print faded from the paper - High President of Earth, apparently. The Vantian hopped of their seat and motioned to follow them. "You can call me Arxi! What brings you out so far from home sirs?"

Rory looked confused, and Amelia was far too distracted by Arxi's crest to listen to their question, so the Doctor said, "Sightseeing, mostly! Do you know, I haven't actually been _on_ the _Clariel_ before."

Arxi chattered away happily about the amenities available and the variety of scenic planets and stars that their route would take them past. Arxi themselves was almost as interesting as all that information (if not more) to Amelia and Rory. Like all Vantians, they were quite small - the top of their crest barely came up to Amelia's chin. They had two pairs of foreclaws on each side (one large and one small) and two more pairs for walking on. The most noticable part of them by far was their feathered crest - their feathers were a mix of bright pink and jewel blue that Amelia seemed to be having trouble tearing her eyes away from, and the feathers started a few inches above their eyes and swept up over their head and down the back of their neck. Arxi's voice was a soft trill through their mouthparts. They all made their way through several of those high, white arches and into an (incredibly quiet) lift, which took them up 154 levels of the ship, to their suite.

Arxi bid them farewell and have a pleasant voyage, then handed a small blue card with a blinking blue light on it to the Doctor. "If you are in need of assistance," they trilled, "please do not hesitate to summon me! Pressing on the light will alert me of your location." With that, they swept their claws into a respectful farewell gesture, and left the Doctor, Amelia, and Rory on their own.

Rory looked puzzled. "So Doctor," he began, "do these people know you here?"

"Oh! No. Well, some of them might, never know. But no! Arxi thought I was the High President of Earth, actually."

" _High President of--_ "

"Earth, yes." The Doctor pulled the psychic paper back out of his pocket with a flourish. He _loved_ showing this to new people. "Psychic paper! Walk in somewhere acting like you belong there, show 'em this, and whoever sees it will just see whatever they're expecting to see. Hence, High President of Earth. Could have been anyone important enough to get free accomodations, but we all pass as humans, so: Earth!"

"Can I see that?" Amelia asks, eying the psychic paper with interest. The Doctor tossed it to her, and she flipped it open, peering at its surface. Her brow furrowed.

"It just says…'help'..." she said.

The Doctor didn't think it should be saying anything at all at the moment, so that was a surprise.

Amelia's eyes suddenly widened as she stared down at the paper. She held it back up to the Doctor and said, "I think… I think someone _does_ know you here after all."

The Doctor looked down at the paper and read:

**HELP**

**HELP ME**

**DOCTOR**


	4. Lost and Found

**HELP**

**HELP ME**

**DOCTOR**

The Doctor stared as the blocky letters faded slowly from the psychic paper. It figures, doesn't it, that when he doesn't bother to go off in search of a crisis, that the crisis would come in search of him? Typical.  _ However _ . This also sparked the excitement inside his hearts. Crisis was what he lived for after all. There was just the issue of…

"Rory! Amelia! How about you two go ahead and settle in, take a look around, and I'll just, er, pop off and--"

Amelia cut him off with a fierce glare. Fierce might actually be an understatement: it was a glare so strong that the Doctor actually felt himself take a step back from her as the force of it hit him. His low-level empathic senses could feel her steely strong determination  _ very _ well indeed.

"Doctor," she said, "I'm coming with you." It was a statement of fact, as sure and steadfast as the reality of her own existence. It was most certainly not a question.

"Right you are!" The Doctor said, then looked over at Rory, who had an odd look on his face. Possibly queasiness. "Rory?"

"Amelia." Rory said. "I'm not so sure you should be--"

Amelia whirled around and glares at Rory instead. She didn't say a word but the brightness of her eyes, the set of her shoulders, and the way her fists are clenched make it very clear that she  _ will _ absolutely bite either of them if they try to tell her that she can't go where she pleases.

Rory backpedaled quickly. "On second thought, yes, we'll all stick with you, Doctor."

"Wonderful! Come along then, let's see if we can find who needs our help!"

\---

Finding whoever had sent the psychic message turned out to be much easier said than done. Whoever they were, they must have been a fairly strong telepath to not only send the message, but also send it to the right person. The Doctor, however, was not a strong enough telepath to send a message back. His telepathy worked mostly through touch. So it seemed like they would need to mingle with the other passengers until they found one who actually asked them for help, or received a clarifying message. That was basically what they'd been planning to do anyway, and the Doctor felt Rory slowly relax as they explored the ship. As they did, the  _ Clariel _ left her planetside dock and began her cruise.

The Doctor chatted with a variety of alien passengers, as Amelia and Rory alternated between partaking in the activities the  _ Clariel _ offered and trying to make friends with the other passengers. As his two human companions raced each other up the holographic rock wall, the Doctor chatted to several very amiable aliens, all of whom were almost certainly not the one he was looking for. There was a young female-analogue humanoid named Tess from the planet Avella (her eyestalks had been the most brilliant shade of orange), a male-analogue quadruped who went only by "E", and a cluster of crystalline shapes whose delicate chiming the TARDIS translated into a soft but very rapid-speaking voice. That one's name had been something like "Azra-Blue-3-Epsilon" (at least, according to the TARDIS translator - their true name was a melodic series of chimes that took about a minute to complete). All perfectly lovely folks, but definitely not who he was looking for. The Doctor tore himself away from talking to a tall humanoid with four arms and deep purple hair, who seemed to  _ really _ want to let him know all about their stamp collection, in time to see Amelia dragging Rory out of the room and toward another one.

He caught up to them in one of the dining halls, where Amelia was daring Rory to eat something that looked very much like a scoop of mottled green ice cream floating in mid-air over a bowl of engine oil.

"Come on! The menu said it was edible for us." Amelia said, the challenge burning bright in her eyes.

"Edible does not imply  _ good _ , Amelia" Rory said as he reached for a much more comforting looking plate of food that looked almost like Earth spaghetti.

"Well then I'm going to have it!" Amelia stabbed at the floating "ice cream" with her spoon. This proved to be ineffective as it just sent the thing spinning and wobbling above her bowl rather than getting anything into the spoon.

The Doctor flopped himself down at their table and twiddled with the menu, getting it to only show things compatible with his biology. And then he closed his eyes, poked the menu at random, and watched as the randomly selected dish of food materialized in front of him. That was rather fun, actually.

"Any luck?" Rory asked the Doctor, as Amelia abandoned her spoon and decided to start snatching at the floating part of her meal with her hands.

"Nah. Well, plenty of lovely people, but none who needed any help."

The Doctor examined his meal. It looked like pineapple mixed with raw eggshells, if pineapple were blue. Whatever it was, he figured he'd probably had worse. Upon trying it, he decided it was actually quite good. He supposed the  _ Clariel _ didn't regularly cater to the leaders of entire planets for nothing. Amelia finally managed to catch the "ice cream" orb in her hands, and immediately bit into it with a resounding crunch. That hadn't really been the sound any of them had been expecting, but Amelia appeared to enjoy it.

"What time is it, Doctor?" Rory asked after their meal, as he watched Amelia try and fail to stifle a huge yawn.

"Well, we're in space, so it's… kind of hard to put an exact pin on it. The ship doesn't have any specific night or day hours, since there are so many species with different sleep cycles on board. You can key your rooms to match Earth's days and nights though! But for us, it seems like it's about time for bed."

They all retired to their suite, and the Doctor spent entirely too much time staring at the psychic paper and hoping to get another message on it, and entirely too little time actually sleeping. Hopefully they could find whoever had sent the message tomorrow.

\---

In the morning, there was indeed a new message.

**STOCKROOM 117K**

**NOW**

Now  _ that _ was a helpful message. All the rooms on the ship were clearly labeled and marked on the maps that appeared on screens at regular intervals in the corridors. The Doctor, Amelia, and Rory arrived at Stockroom 117K with no issues. The door was locked and marked "STAFF ONLY" but the Doctor pressed his sonic screwdriver to the place the digital lock would be, and it clicked open. He pushed the door open, revealing the room inside -- it mostly contained boxes of blankets, pillows, and other, less-earthly bedding materials. It also contained an alien.

In the center of the room, floating gently in the air and looking for all the world like an incredibly large piece of dandelion fluff, was a pastel blue alien that looked like candyfloss. They exuded a nervous, uncertain energy. The Doctor could feel them looking at him, though  _ how _ they did that through all that fluff was uncertain.

"You. Are the Doctor." The candyfloss alien spoke, but spoke was a poor word to describe how they were communicating. The alien did not make any sound, but projected the concepts and images of what they were saying directly into the Doctor's mind (as well as Amelia and Rory's minds, if their stunned expressions were anything to go by). The communication didn't really contain words, just the feelings and concepts behind them.

"Yes. And you needed my help?" The Doctor took a careful step toward the alien, not wanting to startle them.

"I know of you. I have perceived you. In history lessons." The alien expressed. "I know that you. Help people. I need… I need help. I think. I think I am <dying/alone/forgotten>." 

The last "word" they communicated was a jumble of confusion and pained emotions. The flickers and glimpses that the Doctor caught of their home world and other members of their species, combined with what they had said, was enough for it to click in his brain.

" _ Oh _ ," he said, "Oh  _ no _ . You're one of the Hrezz aren't you? But you're-- you're  _ alone _ . Where is the rest of you? Your people, they exist in clusters, never alone. You feed off the psychic link between each other, and without  _ tha _ t--"

"Without that," the alien said, "I will die soon. But there is no 'rest' of me. I am alone here, I have always been--" The alien's communication was cut off by a wave of "<loss/alone/sadness loss/confusion grief/pain/terror loss loss  _ alone _ >"

There's something about that that doesn't seem quite right. How would they have even gotten here, if they were alone? How would they have gotten  _ anywhere _ ? The Doctor also could have sworn he'd seen this alien, along with the rest of their cluster when they had first boarded the ship.

"Right," he said. "We're going to help you, and then we are going to figure out how on  _ earth-- _ I mean, how on whatever planet you come from-- this happened."


	5. Family of One

There was a problem. The Doctor _remembered_ seeing a group of the candyfloss puffball Hrezz aliens when they'd first arrived. So did Amelia, for that matter. But their new friend (who, when prompted for a name, had replied with a series of soft colors and the feeling of wind) had said that they couldn't sense the presence of any members of their species on the ship. So what had happened?

"Alright. Let's go through this again," the Doctor said. "Do you remember arriving on the ship and checking in?"

"Yes! <I/we> I-I-I--" the alien cut themselves off with a choked expression.

"Would you… allow me to make contact with you directly?" The Doctor asked. "Only, I'm a touch telepath you see, and perhaps you'd have an easier time if I just, er, went in there and…" he made a complicated gesture that involved waving his arms around wildly and indicating his own head. "Eh? What do you say?"

"Acceptable." The puffball alien bobbed through the air towards them, coming to a rest in front of the Doctor.

"Alright then," the Doctor said, reaching both of his hands out to gently touch the alien on either side of their body. " _Contact_."

The connection was strong and instantaneous. The Doctor felt every scrap of loneliness, every moment of growing weakness the alien felt. He made a face, but pushed on. He pushed back to the boarding of the ship. The alien was boarding alone. No-- a flicker, and the alien was boarding with the rest of their cluster. The image dissolved in a burst of white light and static. Another flicker, and the alien cluster was making their way down one of the lift chutes, exiting, and-- a flicker of static. A blinding white light. The split second image of terrible rend in fabric of space and time, curving like a jagged and hungry smile. A _familiar_ smile. And then the static was gone, the crack was gone and always had been, and the alien was alone. The Doctor severed the contact.

That shape. That rip in space and time. The crack in Amelia's bedroom wall. They couldn't be the same, and yet they were, the familiar pattern of jagged lines was unmistakable. If they were the same, then that meant, _that meant--_ the Doctor _didn't_ know what that meant. And that scared him more than anything. It meant he couldn't let young Amelia out of his sight.

Their new alien friend would die soon though, if they didn't join a new cluster of their people soon. That had to be dealt with first. The Doctor made a mental note of their exact current coordinates in space and time, and then scooped the weakened alien up into his arms and hurried toward the TARDIS. Amelia and Rory followed.

"I should be able to link you up with the TARDIS's empathic circuits," he explained on the way. "That should keep you stable until we get to your planet and find you a new cluster to, er, join? Commune with?"

"<Become/self/many/one> _ <alive/together>!_"

Once the alien was in the TARDIS and had the time travelling machine's empathic circuits connected to them via cables that pulsed with a blue glow, they looked a little less forlorn. Once the Doctor managed to land them on the right planet, at the right time (which only took three tries, by the way), they looked much more hopeful. The pale blue essence of their body had grown a little brighter, and the way they bobbed in the air seemed more optimistic. The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors onto the alien world, and let the cool air of the planet rush in.

"Doctor. I thank you. I will survive from here." The alien shook themselves free of the glowing cables and floated through the door, the blending almost perfectly with the soft blue of the grass outside.

"Well, if you're sure… safe travels. And good luck!" The Doctor waved at the departing alien, as did Amelia and Rory.

\---

Back on the _Clariel_ , the TARDIS materialized in the stockroom, seconds after the Doctor and his companions had left it.

"Doctor…" Rory began, "so, what exactly happened to the rest of that alien's cluster?"

"Great question, Rory Williams! I'll let you know when I find out. Now, I really, _really_ need to check on something." The Doctor dashed off in the direction of the lift where the alien had been before encountering the crack. He took the lift down, got out at the right floor, and… nothing. The wall across from him was smooth and white and unmarred by any cracks in spacetime or otherwise. Rats. Well. He supposed that was probably a good thing-- no one else on the ship would be disappeared in the same way at least.

Returning to Amelia and Rory, he realized he was going to have to ask. "Amelia… do you remember your parents?"

She looked puzzled. "Yes, of course I do. I had a mum and a dad, and they, they, they--"

"But what happened to them? Do you remember their faces? Their voices? Anything?" He asked.

"I… _no_ ," Amelia said, distressed. "Doctor, _why can't I remember them?_ I know my mum used to carve those little faces onto apples but-- _nothing else_."

Rory looked distressed too. "I can't remember them either," he said. "But I know you _had_ parents, I know you must have. I remember you having them, but nothing else."

"And your Aunt?" The Doctor asked. "Do you remember her?" 

"Aunt Sharon? Yeah, she… she-- I didn't like her very much. I didn't like her because, because… I don't know! _Doctor why don't I know?_ " Amelia's eyes were growing wide and frantic. The Doctor knelt in front of her and pushed a lock of her ginger hair behind her ear.

"Amelia Pond, all alone in a house with too many rooms and not nearly enough people. I am _going_ to find out. I think we need to go back."

"Back?" Rory asked.

"Back to Amelia's time. We _need_ to see what happened to her family."


End file.
